It wouldn't surprise me. I started to suspect this when they had the Hatfield rifle on Pawn Stars to promote the new Hatfield-McCoy mini-series.
Somehow, this short scene from a great movie (Dustin Hoffman, Hero) seems to fit here. A father imparts wisdom to his son. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSijB9-Hw7g
There was that Cajun Pawn Stars where a guy brought in 2 pairs of $5,000 and $10,000 notes. I liked that one.
If you don't think that the Pawn show is scripted then I don't know what reality you're living in. Sure they advertise for odd items, but the ones that get on the air (cable) are set up before hand.
After all that information leaked out about the scripting on Gold Rush and Sons of Guns (guy even had his firearms license taken away) I suspect the same was true about Pawn Stars. It became more obvious in later ep isodes that things were being brought into the store just so the person could get on TV. But aside from that, I did enjoy watching the show just for the education about the items shown to be pawned. Some of the discussions were pretty interesting. However I haven't watched this show in a while because I got tired of cable TV and "cut the cord" last year. If it shows up on Netflix, I might catch up on a few episodes.
I guess if you're a big fan of the show and like silver, this isn't that bad of a buy so long as you are not buying it as an investment. As for the show, of course it's not 100% like a real pawnshop setting. There's just no way you could value and buy all of the things they do on the show live. Some advanced knowledge of what's being brought in would be required. If they didn't advertise to contact them in advance for valuable items they'd have to film thousands of hours just to make a few episodes. So, I don't think it's a real intent to decieve people because these sorts of things do get brought into pawn shops a lot but for filming logistics it's required. Granted, because they are on TV and perhaps the most famous pawn shop in the world they do get a lot more of the weird stuff but I don't see the show as being a fraud. Does it work like most other pawn shops? No. How can it if it is on TV?
I prefer Hardcore Pawn as well. It is a closer example of some of the real situations that can and do happen (to some extent.) However, most of the arguing is scripted. Ashley doesn't actually work there anymore, she is there for filming. Ashley and Seth actually get along quite well and are both very nice people and fun to be around.
From what I understand Gold Rush isn't really scripted. People often confuse creative editing with scriptiing, that's the problem. They often leave out important info and sometimes misrepresent situations by the way they edit (soemtimes on purpose) but the people on the show are not working from a script. Not sure about the SoG, but I think I remember reading that the episode where they found the tooth in a gun was totally made up. Not only that it is pretty clear all of the dialogue is scripted or at least highly practiced.
According to my tracking number, my 2 rounds are "out for delivery". Woohoo. I will enjoy these overpriced rounds just like I will enjoy the 2 more overpriced San Fran silver Eagles when I get them.